Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-02-04

whole nights experience in her great brown
eyes.
"Poor thing" said Rachel sympathetically.
This is only the beginning Heaven knows
what we won't have to go through with be-
fore the sun rises.
She tried to mount, but her watery gar
ment5 were too much for her agility, and
with the wet skirts lettering her limbs she
began toiling painfully over the spongy,
plowed ground. III search of II stump or u
rock She thought She saw many arounI her,
but on approaching one after another found
they were only large cotton plants, with q
boil or two of ungathered cotton on them,
which aided the darkness in giving thcn their
deceptive appearance. She prevented herself
| from travelling in circle 10y remembering
| this aptitude of bcnighted travellers, and keep
ing her eye steadily fixed on a distant camp
| fire. When she at last came TO the edge Of
the field she had to lean against the fence for
some minutes before she could recover from
her fatigue sufficiently TO climb upon It,
While she sat for minute there She heard
some cocks at a neighboring farmhouse. crow
| the turn of night
at is midnight" she said feverishly, and
have only begun the journey. Now let every
nerve and muscle do its utmost
She rode along the fence until she came TO
an opening, which led into what appeared in
the darkness to be another cotton field, but
| proved TO be n WORKOUT one long ago abau-
doned to the rank growing briais, which
| chung TO and tore her skirts, and scanned the
mares delicate skin with bleeding burrows.
The hnchng brute pressed onward, III re-
Spouse TO her mistress encouragement, but
the progress was grlevously slow.
Presently Rachel began to see moving
figures a little way ahead of her, and hear
voices in command She realized that she
was approaching the forces moving TO the at
tack on the Union right. There was some
thing Grotesque, weird even frightful in the
sounds and the aspect Of the moving masses
and figures, but she at last made out that
| they were batteries, regiments and mounted
men. She decided that her best course was
to mingle with and move along with them,
until she could get a chance to ride away in
advance. For hours, that seemed weeks, she
remained entangled in the slow moving mass
whose bewildering vagaries of motion were
| as trying to the endurance Of her steed az
they were exasperating to her own imp&
tience Occasionally she caught glimpses Of
the Union camp fires in the distance, that,
low and snodering, told of the waning night,
and she would look anxiOuSly over her left
shoulder for a hint of the coming Of the
dreaded dawn. Her mare terrified her with
symptoms of giving out.
At last She saw an unmstakahle silvery
break in the eastern clouds. Half frantic she
broke suddenly out Of the throng by an
abrupt turn to the right, and lashing her
mare SaVagely galloped where a grazing in
the dense darkness showed an opening be-
tween two cedar thiclets that led to the
picket fire., half mile away The mares
hoofS beat generously on the level limestone
the shallow soil and starves out the cedar.
Halt! Go hack commanded hoarse
voice in front Of her, which was accompanied
with the clicking of a gunlock. "Ye can t
pass heah"
"Lemme pass mister" she pleaded. I'm
on'y gal, with medicine fur my nanny,
an I'm powerful anxious to git home
NO, ye can't git out heah. Orders are
strict; besides, if ye did the Hankeesd cotch
ye. They're pest out thar"
She hec8mo aware that there were heavy
lines Of men tying near, ard fearing 20 LAY
another word She turned and rode away To
the left, She hecame cntangled with cav
airy company moving toward the extreme
Union right, and riding with it several hun
dred yards turned oil INTO convenient grove
just as the light began to be sufficient to dis
tingu.h her from a trooper. She was now,
but She had gone far to the south, where the
two lines were wide apart. The Union flies
and drums, now sounding what seemed an
unslspcious and cheerful reveille, We're ap-
parently at least "a mile away. 1t was grow
ing lighter rapidly, aud every passing mo-
ment was fraught with the weighticst III
gency. She concentrated all her energies fer
a supreme effort, and dashed her mare for
ward over the muddy cotton field The
beasts hcofs sank III the loose red loan as t
II were qIicksand, and her pace was madden
mglN Slow. At last Rachel came in sight Of
Union camp at the edge of cedar thicket
The arms We're stacked, the men were cooking
breakfast. and Il battery of cannon standing
near had no horses attached.
Rachel beat the poor mares tanks furious
ly, and shouted: Turn out. The rebels are
coming. The rebels are coming
Her warning came too late. Too late. also,
came thai OF the picketS, who We're firing their
guns and rushing hack To camp before an aw
full wave Of men that had roll,i cut Of the
cedars ON the other side of the cotton field
hundred ioisterous drums We're now mai
ing the thickets ring with the long roll"
Rachel SaH the men IN front of her leave their
coffee making rush to the musket stacks,
seize their guns and take their places in line.
In another minute they We're ordered forward
to the fence IN front ot them, upon which they
rested their miskets Rachel rode through
their line and turned around to look Tie
broad cotton field was covered with SOLID
masses of COntplerateS. rushing forward with
their peculiar fierce yell
Fire" shouted the colonel in front of her.
The six field pieces to her right split her ears
with their crash. \ thousand muskets blazed
out fire chat withered the first line OF the